Leanne & Mark's 2023 European Travels

We started out for a good day visiting the spectacular Harry Potter viaduct (Glenfinnan) and then planned to head over to the Isle of Skye by ferry to cut the drive and se a bit of Scotland from the water. It didnt quite turn out that way. We drove to the viaduct through intermittent downpours and found spots to see the Jacobite Express (steam train) cross the viaduct. The sun came out (amazing, and too good to last) and the the heavens opened again, drowning everybody. It did slacken off by the time the train arrived, and we got a great view. Also, check out Leanne's Facebook post here .   Then it opened up again as we headed back to the car. Saturated, we turned up the heat and headed to Mallaig, 30 minutes beyond Glenfinnan at the end of a long peninsula. Because of the weather, some ferry trips had been cancelled, so I checked the website and it said our ferry was running. After driving to Mallaig we discovered all ferry trips had been cancelled.  So instead of a 30 minute...

Today we headed out to Edinburgh Airport and picked up our rental car which went pretty much as expected - except, when we arrived 40 minutes early, the guy at the Europcar counter said he didn’t have any manuals ready to give us. But he offered an automatic instead, but it was gonna cost £15 a day more, but we would savemkost of that back based improved fuel economy.  We decided we would wait the 40 minutes and not pay the £300 it was going to cost us to get an automatic and our supposed fuel savings. So he called us about 25 minutes later and said we've got your car ready and then gave us an automatic hybrid Toyota Corolla! It must be the oldest car in the fleet as it’s done nearly 100,000 kilometres, but it drives fine. I was just pretty ****** at his attitude but it is giving us 60 mpg (4.7 l/100km) and saving even more  £. There’s nothing much to say about the drive except it’s some of the most spectacular scenery I’ve driven through in a long long time - check ...

Today we had lots of ideas, but as usual the weather managed to get in the way of it. We headed out about 10:00 to catch the hop on hop off bus that would take us beyond the centre of Edinburgh, which we’d walked yesterday.  The bus headed down through the outer parts of the New Town to the Firth of Forth and the harbour to where the HMV Britannia is docked and then back through some of the eastern parts of Edinburgh before it arrived back in town. We passed through lots of beautiful areas with some lovely old homes, past the Botanic Gardens and other historic areas.  We had a chuckle at this ad on the back of a bus going to the zoo: And there is a sad lack of maintenance occasionally, combined with some very haphazard wiring. As well as this example , I saw a poor electrician testing random cables appearing out of a wall trying to make sure he didn’t electrocute himself. Once we’d done that, we thought we’d actually head back to the HMV Britannia, which was the Queen's p...

We woke to a pleasant looking day. I headed down a grabbed some milk and a croissant and we enjoyed a simple & cheap (for a change) cereal breakfast.  Once showered, we we headed east through New Town to Hollyrood House and then headed west along the Royal Mile headed for our appointment with Edinburgh Castle. We have to say Edinburgh Old and New Towns are magnificent, with a wonderful mix of gardens, old buildings and spectacular monuments. Some of the magnificent buildings from our walking tour of Edinburgh: Edinburgh Castle: Sir Walter Scott Monument: Another Sir Walter Scott Monument: Royal Mile: Old Tollbooth Wynd & Tavern: St Giles' Cathedral: Milne (Mylnes) Court was where Leanne's GGG Grandfather Peter Gillon lived in 1871. His son, also Peter, emigrated to Oz and married Mary Quin in 1851. Peter snr also lived a bit further down the Royal Mile in Wardrop's Court in 1851. At the top of the Royal Mile sits the imposing edifice that is the Edinburg Castle. Thi...